woi

woi

1. grandfather
2. bird-of-paradise

• wohl (Southern Bavarian)

From Middle High German wol, wole, from Old High German wola (“well”), from Proto-Germanic *wela, from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁-. Compare German wohl, Dutch wel, English well, Danish vel, Swedish väl.

• IPA^(key): /voe/

woi

1. well, healthy

   Is da ned woi? ― Are you not feeling well?

2. (modal particle expressing an assumption, often like English must + infinitive, or (US) guess + clause): probably, possibly, seemingly

   De håm se woi wås eigfånga. ― They've probably caught something.

   Du bist woi ned gånz gscheid. ― You must be crazy.

woi

1. in response to a negative question or statement: yes; surely; really; on the contrary

   Des is jå ned wåhr. — Woi! ― That's not true. — Yes, it is!

   Kummst heit auf d'Nåcht ned? — Woi! ― Aren't you coming tonight?? — Yes, I am!

Possibly from Cantonese 喂 (wai²) or Min Nan 喂 (oeh). Doublet of oi and hoi.

woi

1. hey
2. hello

• woy (colloquial)

• “woi” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

From Proto-Oceanic *pon̄u (“green sea turtle”), from Proto-Austronesian *peñu (“turtle”)

woi

1. sea turtle

Variant orthographies

ALIV	woi
Brazilian standard	woi
New Tribes	woi

Compare Kari'na wòi, Trió oi.

• IPA^(key): [βoj]

woi (possessed woichü)

1. a kind of wild elephant ear plant (genus Xanthosoma), considered the most potent of all magical herbs (mada) as a defense against supernatural threats

• Cáceres, Natalia (2011) “woi”, in Grammaire Fonctionnelle-Typologique du Ye’kwana‎^[1], Lyon
• Hall, Katherine Lee (1988) “wo:i”, in The morphosyntax of discourse in De'kwana Carib, volumes I and II, Saint Louis, Missouri: PhD Thesis, Washington University
• Guss, David M. (1989) To Weave and Sing: Art, Symbol, and Narrative in the South American Rain Forest, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, →ISBN, pages 56–57, 102, 240: “woi”
• Lauer, Matthew Taylor (2005) Fertility in Amazonia: Indigenous Concepts of the Human Reproductive Process Among the Ye’kwana of Southern Venezuela‎^[2], Santa Barbara: University of California, page 220: “woi”
• Gongora, Majoí Fávero (2017) Ääma ashichaato: replicações, transformações, pessoas e cantos entre os Ye’kwana do rio Auaris‎^[3], corrected edition, São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, pages 97, 176, 193, 196, 200, 207, 418: “woi”